Quotes from Loretta Chase

Gout, I understand, has reformed a great many rogues.

Parents must be treated with respect, whether one wants to strangle them or not.

You shouldn't have married an elderly man." "Virgil was four and fifty when we wed," she [Daphne] said. "That is not exactly Methuselah." "How old were you?" "Nineteen and a half," she said. ""You'd have done better with two husbands of seven and twenty," he said.

I have always believed that anyone who must violate the law to achieve his purposes must lack either intelligence or imagination, probably both.

THE Right Honorable Edward Junius Carsington, Earl of Hargate, had five sons, which was three more than he needed.

It is as your sister and friend that I tell you Dain is a splendid catch. I advise you to set your hooks and reel him in." Jessica took a long swallow of her cognac. "This is not a trout, Genevieve. This is a great, hungry shark." "Then use a harpoon.

But you are a charming and beautiful dunces, madame. And," he continued in French, "a charming and beautiful woman can get away with murder. Can you imagine that any man here would prosecute you for assassinating our language?

If Lady Brentmor told the prime minister to jump off a bridge," Fiona had once remarked, "Wellington would meekly ask, 'Which one?

And, while Jessica had faith enough in Providence, she preferred to seek help from more accessible sources. Her assistant was Phelps, the coachman.

The Vizier is a genius, truly, if he can keep peace among three hundred women. I can't do so with only one.

He'd forget all that, just as he would forget this night. The memories would linger for a time, but they'd grow dull. The ache he felt now, the frustation and anger and sorrow - all those would fade too. She'd given him a night to remember, but of course he'd forget.

I spent hours yesterday talking of little but medical symptoms and insane asylums. And you listened as though it were poetry and all but swooned at my feet. It is too bad I don't have any medical treatises about. I'm sure I need read a paragraph or two, and you will become ravenous with lust and begin tearing my clothes off. (Dorian from "The Mad Earl's Bride")

I'm in a mood to knock someone down, and you'll do very well." "Don't tell me," Longmore said. "The dressmaker doesn't want you, either. By gad, this isn't your day, is it? Not your week, rather.

it was hard to hide one's emotion from one's own kind.

His conscience smote him. As smitings go, it wasn't much, his conscience being in poor fighting condition.

You kissed first," he said. "On the cheek!" "On the cheek, on the lips. All the same to me. Female, kiss. Male, excited. Do I have to explain simple facts of life to you? »

It is brilliant, and I would swoon if I knew how. Perhaps I learnt the art but it was long ago, and I've forgotten, It is merely one of a number of feminine skills I lack.

Everybody knew gentlemen could be obtuse, especially when it came to matters of the heart. Everybody knew, as well, that gentlemen needed to believe they were in charge. Therefore, ladies had to learn ways of communicating the obvious without being obvious about it.

Humor will relieve an awkward moment.

In the real, grown-up world, unicorns were more plentiful than Prince Charmings.

The whole thing's absurd," he said. "Your sister married a duke. I told Clevedon . . ." he trailed off. "What did you tell him?" "Never mind that now," he said. "I certainly will mind it now," she said. "Do you want to find Clara or do you want to quarrel?" he said. "Preferably both," she said.

Mama, you know, lost all her enthusiasm for mothering by Baby Number Seven. What a pity she did not lose her enthusiasm for Papa at the same time. But then, I doubt she was ever altogether clear on where babies come from. She was very much astonished each time she found herself enceinte. Papa was naughty not to explain her.

He started to draw away but she wasn't ready. She held on, and after a heartbeat he slid his hands to her waist and pulled her closer. His kiss grew more fiercely determined, as though he would wipe every recollection of anything remotely resembling kisses from her mind and imprint his, permanently, upon it. And upon her body, where the alien feelings simmered into excitement and happiness and a yearning for more. Strange

You couldn't help yourself," he said. "Actually, I couldn't," she said. "If I hadn't the opportunity—if you hadn't been so shockingly understanding—and tempting—" "I worked damned hard at that. The tempting part. I wasn't sure you were paying attention." "Apparently, I was doing little else but.